Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Baby Shoe 3: a different delivery

When we found out that we were expecting this new little baby, we decided to go with what we had been talking about off and on over the last couple of pregnancies: a homebirth.

I guess we decided to do a homebirth for a variety of reasons: I don't have high-risk pregnancies; we'd like to be at home when we deliver; and we like as little intervention as possible when laboring.

So we are now in the care of a very wonderful and talented midwife here in Moscow. We are really looking forward to this new experience and to feeling more at home during the delivery (since obviously, we will be at home unless something odd happens). Of course, changing care providers meant that we aren't working with our wonderful doctor that delivered Hazel and Klaas. I do miss seeing her and that she won't be there for number 3. And our little hospital is just about the best place to have a baby, especially compared to some horror stories I've read about other hospitals, their nurses, and their birth policies.

I'm not one to commit to a change quickly, but I am excited about our new midwife as she is kind, efficient, cautious, and caring through both the prenatal care and in labor. One thing we do really appreciate is that she is cautious and not hesitant to take a laboring mother to the hospital if things aren't going the way they should. Also that she is very helpful in labor to try and get that baby to come out smoothly.

We know our midwife through a lot of different connections, both from our church, and from a lot of friends that have used her services in the past.

So that is something new that we're doing with this little one.

The one funny thing about doing a homebirth is that in most circles, it's a rather controversial topic. But it seems that where we are the homebirth/hospital decision is right down the middle, 50/50. Of course that's just my impression, but it's not a big deal to do a homebirth in Moscow. Must be that crunchy, granola, inland Northwest thing we have going on up here.

In the weeks coming up to the due date, we'll be collecting a various assortment of items to have on hand that we didn't have to think about with delivering in a hospital. I'll try to post more about our experience and of course, when the bambino is born, we'll post about how the whole delivery went down. So there is my (in my opinion) rather un-inflammatory post on planning on having our baby at home. Feel free to comment,

jason also lives in northern idaho. he enjoys carpentry, listening to johnny cash, wondering why his wife likes to read mysteries so much, and adoring all four kiddos. he is currently researching school bus renovations so that we can become nomadic hippies.